Why Bother?
by Lexie Daughter of Athena
Summary: Have you ever wondered what the point of making friends is? I've been thinking about that a lot lately. Why bother when you always end up losing them?


This takes place in _The Last Olympian _after Percy and Annabeth's fight that took place directly after reading the Great Prophecy. It goes into the frustrations Annabeth is dealing with during this time, its main focus is on her friendships, but it expands much further. I hope you enjoy it.

**Why Bother?**

**Annabeth's POV**

"If you don't like our chances maybe you should go on that vacation with _Rachel_."

"Annabeth—"

"If you don't like our company."

"That's not fair!"

That was the last thing I heard before I stormed off leaving Percy alone.

Have you ever wondered what the point of making friends is? I've been thinking about that a lot lately. Why bother when you always end up losing them? Friends who die, friends who change, friends who find other friends and forget about you, or friends who say they're your friend when they're really just using you.

Why bother when it happens every time! And every time it happens you just end up getting hurt even more. It causes you to become more and more distant and untrusting of others; it makes you build your walls up higher. What's the point in it?

Yeah everyone has friends who come and go, but I just get the feeling that it happens a lot more to me than it does to others. I mean sure I made friends when I lived with my dad still, they never lasted very long though because a monster would always come and get me sent to a new school. That's pretty much the story of how all my friendships went the first seven years of my life. When I ran away and met Luke and Thalia I had made a strong friendship, but the problem with those is that it hurts even more when they fall apart.

Losing Thalia had been one of the more devastating things to occur in my life. She was practically my sister, she and Luke were more of a family then my actual family had ever been, and I felt I could confide in them about anything. But just one thing can change all of that and then just like that they're gone. We had been so close too; if it wasn't for those few wrong turns we made on our way to camp she could have made it. But the Fates are cruel and they took her leaving Luke and me to mourn alone. In six years, all the pain had been reopened when the Fates decided to play with my life again. Right when you'd think I would have gotten over Thalia's death she's brought back, but only to be taken again a few months later by the Hunters.

I still love Thalia I always will, and I respect the path she chose. I mean I almost did the same, but the path she chose resulted in us not seeing each other very often or for very long. And at one point I will end up leaving her like she first left me because everyone must die and I am no exception to that rule.

You know how they say everything you do ends up affecting something else? Well it's true; it's all a ripple effect. Thalia's death was just one of the many ripples which ended up causing even more.

After Thalia died something between Luke and I was never the same. We were still close, but not as close as we were before. I suspect that time and our views on things were part of the reason. Luke resented the gods more than he had before. He was different. And after his first quest all signs of the Luke I knew were gone. Something had made him go cold. But no one ever— I never thought he would betray us like he did. He would never… he promised. But I've come to learn that you can't believe in promises because they always end up being broken. I don't want to give up on him, I don't want another broken promise, but I don't know what to believe anymore and I hate that. I will fight with my camp, but what I will fight for I'm not sure.

I have decided that being a third-wheel is the worse way a friendship can end because you see it coming, but you don't see it at the same time. You're there the whole time, but you're slowly being pushed away from the rest of them. And that's the worst feeling in the world; the feeling that they're happier without you; that they'd rather hang out together alone than hang out with you; that he likes _her_ more than _you! _This is how I've felt for a year now. And it's all because of that evil little red headed Rachel.

You know what makes it even worse; it could have all been avoided. It was my fault that they even met. If I hadn't gotten captured, then Percy wouldn't have gone to rescue me, if he hadn't gone to rescue me then he would have never met Rachel! Percy, my so-called-best friend, has spent practically all of his time outside of camp with Rachel! He doesn't seem to even acknowledge the conflict between Rachel and me. Is he _that _dense!? Even after I kissed him? Am I just not fun to be around? Does he just like her more than me? It makes sense seeing as he spends all his time with her rather than with me. Hades he even brought her on _my_ quest after we had separated from Grover and Tyson! Can he not even stand being alone with me? I thought— I thought he actually liked me… even just a tiny bit.

Well that was stupid. It was stupid of me to think that. Stupid of me to get my hopes up, to get my feelings mixed up. Stupid. I'm better off without feeling anything, I always have been. I don't need him. If he wants to go off with Rachael then let him! Let him forget everything we've been through together! Let him forget about the things we know about each other that no one else does! Let him forget about our kiss in the Labyrinth! Let him forget it all! I should have never let him in; I should have never let him get past my guarded walls. But I did and I let him take them down from the inside, leaving me to the point where I have no idea what is going on inside me. I don't understand these feelings, they're uncharted territories, and they're causing a lot on turmoil inside. And they're all because of that one boy! Percy Jackson.

What he does to me makes me want to scream! Half the time I want to kill him, but the rest of the time I want nothing more than for just the two of us to— to what? Certainly not date. No we would never. He doesn't feel that way towards me, and I most certainly don't feel that way towards him. Do I? What am I thinking? I would know if I felt that way, right?

I was broken out of my thoughts by a sudden noise. I soon recognized to be my phone's ring tone. I cursed I searched for the device. By the time I found it under my bed it had stopped ringing. I flipped it open and noted that I had one new message. I shrugged and played the message.

"Um hey Annabeth." I felt my heart surge at the sound of his voice. Percy.

"Well I've been gone for about a day now, not sure if you noticed or not wouldn't blame you if you didn't, if you did you probably thought I was just being a _coward _and ran away." I winced remembering what I had called him in our fight. I had just been so mad that I didn't think. Truth be told I had noticed that he wasn't around, I had been worried too but I just pushed into the back of my mind being to mad to care at the time. But now that I heard his voice my worries were all upfront again.

"Well I'm alive, more than alive actually. And I need you to get everyone to the Empire State Building. Yeah it's time, so make sure that everyone's ready for battle." I closed my eyes taking in every word he was saying for two reasons, one because this was the war we're talking about, and two because… well I don't really know, I guess I just wanted to.

"If you could try to convince Clarisse one last time to fight with us that'd be great, oh and— gah!" I heard a lot of rumbling in the background and worried about what was happening on the other end. "Gods Mrs. O'Leary, next time you decide to sit down make sure I'm not under your butt!" I chuckled at his behavior, I could imagine exactly what he'd look like.

"Um Annabeth you still there? What am I doing this is a message. Um well… um I can't remember what I was going to ask you, but I'm sure you'll think of it anyways because you're you and 'Athena always has a plan' and whatnot." I rolled my eyes at his silliness.

"Oh and Annabeth, I'm sorry about what I said um…" I heard the phone move probably checking the length of the call, "two minutes and sixteen seconds ago, I shouldn't have brought that up. We were both mad and we said things we didn't mean to say. So I hope we're cool now. So I'll see you on the front lines Wise Girl, bye."

I closed my phone with a sigh. What am I going to do? This one boy makes so many feelings appear. I can identify all but one, though I fear I know what it is. I got up to go gather the campers so we could meet Percy at the Empire State Building. I walked out of my cabin shouting for everyone to meet at the Big House. As I walked past Cabin Three I caught a whiff of the sea and I let out a content sigh. As I realized what I just did my eyes widened, my fears had just been confirmed.

I had fallen head over heels for my best friend.

I told you, you fall every time. Although when I said that, this wasn't exactly what I had in mind.

**Lexie: I hope you all like this story, this actually took me really long to write, usually it takes me about an hour to write a chapter, but this story took me about a week because I needed to be in a specific mood in order to write it. **

**And ahhhh I just found out my friend has Son of Sobek and she's making me beg for it! I'm going to die if I don't get something to hold on to for the next 149 days, 2 hours, 29 minutes, and 31 seconds.**

**So let me know what you think in your wonderful reviews. Has anyone else ever had these thoughts just out of curiosity.**


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